


Wind Howls, River Roars

by BowAndDagger



Series: Wind Howls, River Roars [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, End of the World (Implied), Fix-It, M/M, Pre-Slash, They have not met yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-07-18 06:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16113179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BowAndDagger/pseuds/BowAndDagger
Summary: He never had a Daemon.He was born without one, contrary to everyone else he knows. He never had an animal constantly changing sizes and shapes at his side as he grew up. To all intent and purpose, Tobirama was born without the second half of his soul. He was with no soulmate.Until a fox, his Daemon, literally landed in his lap.(It took less than two months for the Elemental Nations to fall and for the Shinobi to scatter to the winds.The world ended.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to wait a bit and post everything as a oneshot but this part has been completed for days...  
> Next chapter should be up soon!
> 
> Enjoy!

There is no warning.

One moment Tobirama is having lunch with Hashirama and Mito; and the next he has a lap full of nine-tailed fox.

The creature is rust-coloured, almost golden, with her right limb entirely white. She blinks big blue eyes up at him before yipping softly and nuzzling at his chest.

Tobirama feels his breathe catch in his chest, a large ball of pure joy lodge itself in his throat as he gaps at the feeling rising inside him.

 

“Tobirama?” Hashirama asks.

He got to his feet as soon as the fox – “ _Vixen_ ,” he mentally corrects after a quick glance – appeared in his little brother grasp. At his side, his wife did the same, kunai already in hand.

Mito’s bear doesn’t deign to rise up on her paws; she looks at the scene with bleary eyes before going back to her nap. Hashirama blinks at the representation of his soul, flummoxed by the non-reaction.

By contrast his seagull is flapping his wings but doesn’t move from his perch on his shoulders, and his sharp caws right next to his ear make him wince. Mito’s hand flexes around the handle of her weapon, the only hint of her unease but otherwise she doesn’t move an inch.

 

Tobirama doesn’t answer him; too busy looking in awe at the almost purring animal rubbing herself against him.

A Daemon.

His Daemon.

He has a soulmate.

There are whispered words at the back of his mind; a long litany of " _mine, joy, mine, happy, mine_ " in a tilting feminine timbre.

His fingers tremble as he lifts a hand to carefully, reverently pet her head.

“Kizuna,” he whispers, “her name is Kizuna.”

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Later, once the exhilaration has faded a bit, Tobirama wonders.

He never had a Daemon.

He was born without one, contrary to everyone else he knows. He never had an animal constantly changing sizes and shapes at his side as he grew up. To all intent and purpose, Tobirama was born without the second half of his soul. He was with no soulmate.

His birth wasn’t an unprecedented case. It happened from time to time for one to be born several years before their other half; in which case their Daemon would appear at their side at the exact moment of their soulmate’s birth.

But sometime, it doesn’t happen.

Those who, by their tenth birthdays, don’t have a Daemon will never have one.

Tobirama has turner seventeen three months ago.

When his tenth birthday had happened and passed with no creature representing his soulmate appearing at his side, he had resigned himself. He had lost hope of ever having the quiet companionship, the utter understanding that his brother and Mito share.

Until a fox, his Daemon, literally landed in his lap.

 

(He wonders if he’s an exception to the rule; or if other case similar to his own were never recorded.)

 

He wonders if his soulmate is just born, has just breathed for the first time.

Not all bonds are romantics; some are platonic, sometimes between siblings or even between enemies.

 

(He tries to ignore that though, to bury it at the back of his mind. But he’s pragmatic enough to know it’s a possibility; his soulmate, whoever there are, could be a future enemy – a powerful one at that, if the nine tails are any clue at all.

Thinking of it hurts. He’s the second son. If anything happens to his brother, he’ll have to step up and he doesn’t know if he’ll have the strength to fight against someone he quietly hoped all his life might exist.

But he’ll do it.

It’ll hurt. It’ll destroy him, shatter him from the inside.

But he’ll do it, because Tobirama is nothing but loyal and he’ll always choose his family over someone he barely knows and who may threaten what he holds dear.)

 

“ _Enemy may be a far-fetched idea_ ,” he thinks as he looks at Kizuna, still rumbling in his lap.

She refused to depart from his arms, insisting to be held as she rubs her muzzle, neck and head against every parts of his body she can access – scenting him.

A Daemon represents one’s soulmate; what they really are, what they embodies. Kizuna is too friendly and affectionate to be the mirror of a hateful or bloodthirsty soul.

She doesn’t waver in her self-imposed task to mark him as hers, even as Hashirama coos over them and babbles at him of how much he’s glad he has a Daemon and valiantly resists the urge to pet her fluffy ears and tails. Mito looks on while slipping her tea with a slight smirk on her painted lips being the only hint that she’s amused by her husband.

Tobirama bats his brother’s hands away when they get a little too close to Kizuna’s – admittedly very fluffy and soft – fur and snaps at him to mind his own business. The overgrown oaf backs off and slouches in his chair, a pout on his lips.

He huffs at him before focusing his attention back on Kizuna. He can’t shake off the quiet amazement at the warm weight against him, at the feeling of - finally, finally, _finally_! - being complete.

 

 

He can feel the phantom sensation of hands carding through his hair and tracing the lines of his face; a bleed over from the representation of his soul currently at his soulmate's side.

Tobirama's first assumption had been that his soulmate had just been born; that he was destined to be his soulmate's mentor or a similar role. But Kizuna’s shape is settled, she hasn’t changed once since the moment she appeared in his lap.

And the hands he can feel are too coordinated, too careful, _too reverent_ to be anything else than the hands of someone who has waited and hoped to be paired up for years like he has.

This means his soulmate is grown, not a child or a teen; someone his age maybe, or older.

 

(Tobirama wonders what kind of person his soul’s other-half is to be represented by a nine-tailed fox. a shinobi, most likely and rather powerful. A trickster? A trap and/or genjutsu specialist? Or just someone blessed by Inari-sama?)

 

He doesn't know why his Daemon manifested herself only now, why he had to live seventeen years of his life alone.

It's a mystery; one he'll be sure to grill his soulmate on.

But for now he'll continue to bask in the feelings of a warm and purring ball of fur in his lap and of the slight pressure of his other half's hands.

He pets Kizuna knowing that his soulmate can feel it too. He tries to put his joy and hope in the movements, trying to convene without words how much he's happy.

For the first time in his life, Tobirama looks towards the future with excitement and hope instead of resignation.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being told he had to go back in time hadn’t been received well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...It's been a long time, hasn't it? Sorry! My Muse has been in a BNHA/MHA mood since approximately two days after I posted the first chapter...
> 
> Thank you for all your comments!
> 
> Enjoy!

 

Being told he had to go back in time hadn’t been received well.

Quite frankly, Naruto had loudly protested; the Fourth Shinobi War was over, they had won with most of his friends still alive (thinking of Neji hurts so much he collapsed in a tent as soon as everyone was freed from the Tree and didn’t come up for air until several hours later), Sasuke was back, he met Karin (his _cousin_! He has a cousin!) and he was happy. He neither needed nor wanted to go back in time to fight Zetsu all over again.

What was the point? Everyone he knew and cared for was _here_ , not _then_. Not to mention the fact that if he were to go back, he might erase his friends from existence. He didn’t want that from ever happening.

So Naruto told the Sage “ _no_ ” and left it at that.

 

(He should have said yes; it would have hurt less.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Zetsu was old. He had had literal _centuries_ to plan the return of his beloved mother.

_Of course_ he planned for her to be sealed away again (even if the thought rankled and made his hackles rise).

It took the seal three years to shatter.

And this time around, there wasn’t a Shinobi Alliance conveniently assembled to foil Kaguya’s rise to power.

 

(It took less than two months for the Elemental Nations to fall and for the Shinobi to scatter to the winds.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

At the beginning, the Five Kage had thought it would be easy to fight Kaguya again.

The Tsukuyomi had been analysed, the bodies of its victims autopsied and everything chartered after the war. They had found loopholes and ways to counteract it. Even with no Kaguya or Zetsu, it had been decided to teach those during the first Academy year and the techniques had been offered to any civilians or samurai asking for it.

Kaguya and Zetsu’s second Moon Eye Plan failed before it even began. But they still had the Tree at their disposal and the ability to absorb chakra. And they were quick to do so, catching unaware all who were either too young or had thought themselves safe and never learned the counters.

 

Even then, there was still hope. They had plenty of capable, powerful shinobi; they could still win.

And for a time it looked like they’d succeed against the odds once more.

 

After the debacle of the Fourth War, they really should have expected the Edo Tensei.

The only reason there were so many survivors – and they were depressingly little – was because every single soul brought back during the Fourth War had been protected by the Sage. No dead Kage on the battlefield. No Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito but all of the other Uchihas who ever existed and died. No S-ranked criminals but countless undead shinobi from all eras and horizons, all of the Uzumakis and their prowess with seals, all of the Hagoromos and Kaguyas and… And too many to count or identify.

Kaguya and Zetsu had the number on their side; a number that continuously grew as they killed their opponents.

 

The Nations, then the Villages fell.

The Shinobi scattered, forming little groups of resistance.

The world ended.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

The survivors ran.

Survival is messy.

Try to keep low.

Keep the kids alive.

Try to forget you’re running low on stamina, on chakra, on blood, on _life_.

Ignore your bleeding feet and threadbare clothes. Close your eyes. Do not look at your dead comrades and shove down, down, _down_ the feelings clogging your throat and choking you.

Run.

Look forward.

Heal and fight and protect.

Do not ( _never_ ) look back.

 

Unsurprisingly, Naruto proceeds to ignore that last rule.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

The first few months are chaos and Naruto forgets the Sage’s offer. He does not have time to think – even if he got better at planning before acting in the last few years with Tsunade-baa-chan and Kakashi-sensei (don’t think of them, don’t think of them! Oh gods, the _blood_!) and Shikamaru’s help.

He concentrates on keeping his little group alive. He keeps Konohamaru and Mirai moving despite the loss of their family, keeps Hanabi fed when she begins to lose her grip on reality, keeps Sakura and Karin from depleting their chakra reserves healing everyone except themselves,…

He survives and he pulls them all with him.

 

It’s an offhand comment – from Sai or maybe Kurotsuchi, he doesn’t recall who – that makes him remember. He pulls short and thinks.

This is their chance to stop the end of the world, to stop the Wars before they can even start to begin. They can stop Zetsu, end the cycle of hatred… They can save everyone.

 

During a lull in all the fighting and running, he talks to Kurama and begins to plan. The Fox is as tired as he is. His yin and yang halves may have been reunited, it doesn’t mean he can sustain fighting indefinitely and even as a force of Nature, he has his own limits.

It’s Kurama who points out the problem: they don’t have enough chakra. Not if Naruto wants to bring every survivor with him. Even if he were to use Kurama’s chakra and Nature chakra and all his comrades’ chakra… He’d just succeed in bleeding them all dry, himself included.

This problem does not deter Naruto for long.

He may not have enough chakra in one go. But he can always _stock it_.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

He begins by grilling Sakura on the Strength of a Thousand seal – not before she beats the reasons why out of him – and together they calculate. Even then, it won’t be enough.

So Naruto begins to search for scrolls about fuuinjutsu. He takes everything he can scavenge, and all of it – a rather substantial amount at that – is given to a group of hidden clones whose only preoccupation is to study them and practice.

 

(Naruto is beating himself up over the head for not getting started on the fuuinjutsu since the beginning. It’s his Uzumaki heritage! But he was too busy with other things… And now, with no time left, it’s the only thing that can save them.)

( ~~How many lives could he have saved?~~ )

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

His frantic search for knowledge starts the others on the trend. At first they begins to hoards necessities: covers, food, clothes, weapons, …

And then, once told of the time travel project, they take money and blueprints and machines and jutsu scrolls.

Everything they can get their hands on – everything that can be sold later, in a world untouched by the end – they take and seal into scrolls.

They will be prepared.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Naruto has always learned better under duress. He is at his best when the clock is ticking. This is no exception.

He learns everything about seals in record time – even if one takes into account the shadow clones and their abilities to retain knowledge – he absorbs knowledge like a sponge. It takes weeks; it is a long time they can’t afford to waste but also so very little time compared to the literal decades of study anyone else should have had to undertake.

The first thing the blond Uzumaki does is to tweak his own seal, giving Kurama’s more freedom. Then he modifies Sakura’s: easier access to the chakra stocked inside and a new line that will take a very small amount of Nature chakra every day to convert into her own reserves.

Then he applies his own Strength of a Thousand seal to himself. All six of them.

He already has markings on his face; why not use them?

 

(He totally would have gone for nine, just for the symbolism, but Kurama had told him it would be overkill. Not to mention it would have been too dangerous.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

Once the seals are drawn, Naruto and Kurama begin to pull chakra to them.

Each day, he has several clones go to different location to meditate; they stock Nature chakra into the seals instead of sending it to him. They don’t have much time since Kaguya and Zetsu are on them at each attempt to use Senjutsu.

But even then, Naruto continues to send clones to gather Nature’s energy.

Each day, Kurama sends some of his power to the seals. They gorge on the power, scarf it down with gusto and never fail.

 

(It feels like a victory when his invention doesn’t explode on him during his first try.

Sakura and Karin give him hell when told he didn’t test the seals before applying them to his face. Naruto bears the brunt of their displeasure with good grace; he’s alive, and they finally have a chance to survive.

They celebrate by infiltrating Uzushio ruins and scavenging everything they can. It’s a lot; it turns out.)

 

In no time at all, he feels like he has a miniature sun slumbering under his skin.

He is ready.

 

(They have nothing to lose, anyway.

Better for them to try than to lie down and wait for the end.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

They do not really have a date they want to travel back to. Their goal is as far back as possible.

Both Naruto and Kurama are aware they won’t be able to travel back very far, even with the Sage’s help, not if they want to bring everyone else with them.

The ideal would be to land during Asura and Indra’s time; or even before. But they can’t. So they settle on the next best thing: the Warring Clans Era.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

The actual landing in the past is jarring. A flash of light, a muffled boom, and they all stumble on their feet, pile of bags and supplies tripping them.

Naruto falls to his knees, ears buzzing and feeling empty.

He does not have any chakra left.

_He does not have any chakra left._

He gasps for air; trying to breathe, trying to get past whatever is clogging his throat and lungs. He does not succeed.

Karin and Sakura are at his sides before his knees can even touch the ground, hands glowing green.

He can feel Kurama fading from the corner of his mind, the connection cut from the lack of energy.

And then…

Soft fur under his hands.

A low rumbling.

And Kurama’s chakra – this time’s Kurama – crashing into him, reinvigorating him.

Finally able to breath without obstruction – and as the two Kurama are slowly merging – he opens his eyes. Naruto promptly chokes on his next lungful of hard-won air when he meets the red-eyed gaze of a snow leopard.

The white and black feline looks back at him with faint disapproving worry before nudging at him with his head. The low rumbling sound he heard before (the purring!) continues.

A Daemon.

His Daemon.

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

(When he was a child, Naruto thought the reason why no one liked him in Konoha was that he was the only one not to have a Daemon and, therefore, a soulmate.

 

(He spent a lot of time skipping the Academy for the sole purpose of looking everywhere for his Daemon. Maybe it had gotten lost? Maybe it was looking for him and was as lonely and as scared as Naruto was?)

 

Naruto celebrated his tenth birthday by getting lost in the forest surrounding the village, looking for a companion that did not appear. A frantic silver-haired Anbu and his lynx Daemon had been the ones to find him sobbing his heart out and bring him back to Konoha.

 

(Admittedly, a lot of Naruto’s animosity towards Sasuke had been the fact that the young Uchiha had everything: the love and attention of the villagers, their classmates and their teachers and most importantly: a Daemon (a red sparrow) and yet, Sasuke acted as if he was above everything and everyone. For Naruto, who had no one beside the Old Man Hokage, Old Man Teuchi and Iruka-sensei, it was an affront.)

 

Who would have known that the reason why he had been on his own for so long was because he had not been born in the same timeline as his soulmate? Naruto cannot wait to meet them at long last.)

 

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

 

The phantom touch of fingers carding through his hair lulls him into a calm state as he reciprocates the reverent touch, tracing the black stripes and wondering at the familiar reddish-brown markings on the leopard's nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who want to know, Naruto’s Daemon is named Shun which, among other things, can mean “fast” and “talented”… It was hard to settle on that name; I hesitated between Hideaki (excellent, fine, bright), Kaito (sea/ocean, fly, soar) and Hiraku (support).  
> Kaito and Shun were fierce contenders to describe Tobirama’s soul, as you can imagine. 
> 
>  
> 
> Also, I really hesitated between making Naruto’s Daemon a snow leopard or a dragon to go hand in hand with the nine-tailed fox thing.
> 
> Another side note: In the middle of writing this, I almost changed my mind from TobiramaxNaruto to TobiramaxKurama and I have no idea where that idea came from… Maybe next time.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
